Sceye Secures Five-Year Stratospheric Fleet Deal with SoftBank
Sceye and SoftBank have formalized a five-year agreement to deploy a fleet of High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) for mobile broadband and laser communications over Japan.
Stratospheric Infrastructure Deployment
Sceye has solidified a five-year master-services agreement with SoftBank to manufacture and operate a fleet of high-altitude platform systems (HAPS) over Japan. According to Payload, the deal targets a minimum of 40 units over the next five years, designed to act as a stratospheric relay between terrestrial towers and LEO constellations.
Technical Capabilities
Operating at an altitude of 20 km, Sceye’s platforms bypass the current launch vehicle bottleneck. Utilizing lifting gas, these units reach cruising altitude in under 30 minutes. Recent testing in September, dubbed Service Test 1, demonstrated a 30-day endurance flight from New Mexico to Japan and back. During this mission, the "SceyeCell" antenna successfully delivered voice, text, and video data to standard mobile devices. Additional testing confirmed that edge-computing onboard the HAPS reduced latency by 40% compared to traditional cloud-based solutions.
The Power Loop and FSO
SoftBank’s $15M investment in Sceye’s Series C followed a critical milestone: Sceye became the first to "close the power loop," maintaining station-keeping through the night using battery reserves replenished by solar energy during daylight. While most of the 40-unit fleet will focus on mobile broadband, a specialized subset will establish a Free-Space Optical (FSO) laser network in the stratosphere.
Operational Outlook
Though currently yielding 30-day mission profiles with multi-month refurbishment cycles, Sceye CEO Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen aims to extend flight duration to six months and reduce ground turnaround to weeks. The system offers a GEO-like persistence at 1,800x closer proximity to the surface, providing a scalable alternative to satellite-heavy infrastructure.